Spring 2014 LLM in International Law Class Descriptions

1-3 credit(s)Requirement: SkillsConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)

The Agency Internship Program consists of a work component and a class component. The Agency Internship Program allows students to earn academic credit for working in a law related internship position. Students work a minimum of 60 hours per unit of credit and may receive 1-3 credits. For the work component, students intern with a government agency or a nonprofit organization. During the school year, the internship employer must be in the civil field or criminal appellate law field. Students participate in primarily on-line class sessions involving small group discussions, prepare weekly summaries of their work and complete a writing assignment. If you have been accepted into an internship placement and want to apply for the internship course, fill out the Internship application. If you have any other questions, email Lizzette Herrera Castellanos, Director of Agency Internship Programs or call(619) 260-2342. The internship is graded on a Pass-Fail basis.

Note: There are limitations on JD concentration eligibility. Please check the concentration web pages for more information. Contact Law Student Affairs to find out if your Agency Internship qualifies for a concentration.Additional Information:Concentrations Web Page, Email Law Student Affairs

3 credit(s)Requirement: WritingConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)

This course considers how sophisticated political systems limit and channel the exercise of governmental power. We do this primarily by taking the great issues of American constitutional law and asking how those issues are treated elsewhere. The course is open to all upper-class students, and may be taken concurrent with Constitutional Law. A research paper is required.

3 credit(s)Requirement: WritingConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)

Contemporary public policy and legal debates in both the domestic and international arenas involve an intricate network of moral, political, and legal considerations. The course’s goal is to throw light on the relations among these three fundamental realms: ethics, politics, and law. After a general introduction, we will proceed to discuss the following topics: conceptions of liberty and equality, democracy and public deliberation, human rights, conflicts of rights, corporate responsibility for human rights violations, and the rule of law. Our attention will be focused on cross-boundary issues: Is democracy more important than the rule of law? Does economic equality threaten liberty? Are welfare and social rights compatible with civil liberties in populist democracies? In the last part of the seminar, we will deal with complex global issues: wars and military interventions, terrorism, and global justice. Can military force be used to protect human rights? Should rich nations transfer money to poor countries? Should pharmaceutical patents be enforced in the undeveloped world? Are there immigration rights? Is there a global community? Each student will be required to write a research paper of 20 pages in length. Successful completion of this course satisfies the written-work requirement.

Why and how did the regulation of immigration begin? What maze of federal law and regulations, agencies, courts, “official” memos and constitutional law control outcomes? What does it mean to be a citizen? Should citizenship emanate from parentage, location of birth, or express consent? US companies import thousands of workers annually and immigration is interwoven into commerce, recruiting and HR. Companies that poorly manage immigration lose competitiveness and risk penalties. Abercrombie & Fitch was fined more than $1 million in 2010 for I-9 violations and in 2011 public schools in Prince George’s County Maryland paid $4.2 million for improperly calculating H-1B wages. Immigration laws both separate and reunite families. President Obama deported more foreign nationals in one term than any other US President, but also used extraordinary power to offer deferred action and work authorization to possibly more than one million undocumented young people. And international crises and politics drive the migration of refugees and asylees.
This general immigration course will briefly survey the history of immigration law and introduce basic concepts, agency organization and jurisdiction. This course will explore five principal areas: (1) citizenship, (2) business immigration, (3) family immigration, (4) relief from removal and waivers, and (5) asylum and refugee law. Grades will be based on a midterm and final exam.

2 credit(s), Standard Letter GradedRequirement: SkillsConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)Prerequisite(s): The only required prerequisite is a spirit of adventure.

The New York Convention establishes a framework for international arbitration. More nations have acceded to the New York Convention than any other treaty in the history of the United Nations. This class will explain the system of international arbitration which has become the preferred method of dispute resolution among businesses throughout the world. The class will feature power point presentations, including photos and music from around the world. We will conduct a mock arbitration based upon a fact pattern of two USD law students who take a trip to Buenos Aires, then build a business extending from San Diego to Argentina, Brazil and beyond. LLM students will learn about an international legal structure and acquire practical skills which will be applicable when they return home (wherever that maybe). 2L and 3L students will learn arbitration law reaching from San Diego, California and the United States into the international arena. Students are graded by the standard letter grading system.

3 credit(s), Standard Letter GradedConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)

This is an introductory course on international business law. The course book employed is problem-oriented, focusing student attention on practical problem solving. The course coverage is global, and may include problems related to international sales transactions, letters of credit, customs, import and export trade law, technology transfers across borders, foreign investment law, and international business dispute settlement. Grading is by exam and/or problem sets.

Note: This is a required course for the International Law Concentration (JD).

This course examines international protection of intellectual property. We will discuss international treaties, trade agreements, and dispute resolution systems relating to trademarks, patents, copyrights, and related rights. The course will also cover acquisition and enforcement of intellectual property rights in foreign markets. Prerequisites: None

3 credit(s)Requirement: SkillsConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)

The course will include specific materials and skill-building exercises on cross-cultural aspects of the bargaining process. Participants will include lawyers from other nations who are enrolled in USD's LLMC program, and upper class American JD students. Four-tier Pass/Fail grading.

3 credit(s)Requirement: SkillsConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)

This course focuses on the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), with comparisons to domestic law (the UCC in particular). Considerable time is devoted to the application of the CISG to problems that typically arise in international sales transactions. The course does not include an exam. Students instead prepare written memos that reflect the type of assignments they can expect in practice with a law firm.

2 credit(s)Requirement: WritingConcentration(s): LLM in International Law (LLMI)

Over the last decade Latin America has been one of the fastest growing regions in the world, with foreign demand and investments boosting an unprecedented pace of prosperity and social inclusion. Though growth has declined since the global crisis, Latin America’s huge potential is awaiting a new trend of rapid expansion. American lawyers have a key role to play in the development of business strategies in the region, but training alertness is advisable. In fact, common law education is not self-sufficient for understanding the subtleties of Latin American law, and many American corporations and investors face difficulties for lack of expert counseling concerning domestic legal risks and problems.

The general goal of the course is to allow students to start becoming bijural by training them to communicate well with Latin American peers. We plan to achieve this goal by training students in various areas of Latin American variety of Civil Law: the Civil Law tradition in Latin America, constitutional law, human rights in national and Inter-American law, agrarian reforms and Indian peoples’ rights, civil and commercial codes, civil law remedies, civil procedure, and business law. Besides practical and professional concerns, the course will also be a rewarding intellectual experience, as students will progressively understand that there are few universal legal truths and that legal reasonableness is to a great extent relative to culture and historical accident.

We will focus on Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico (unincorporated US territory), and other Latin American and Caribbean nations. We will not assume that students have a command of Spanish or Portuguese, though some idiomatic background is obviously advantageous. Each student will be required to write a research paper of 20 pages in length in English. Successful completion of this course satisfies the written-work requirement.

“Transitional Justice” is an emerging field of policy, practice, and study that focuses on the moral, legal, and political dilemmas encountered as individuals, communities, and nations attempt to grapple with historical legacies of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other large-scale human rights violations. In such circumstances: Who must be punished and who may be pardoned? Do vigorous efforts to promote legal accountability jeopardize the emerging and fragile peace? What is the proper role and responsibility of the so-called international community? In this class, we will examine the complementarity and conflict between the often overlapping demands that nations face in the wake of large-scale human rights abuses, including retribution, reconciliation, restitution, memory, and other forms of accountability. This will include study of the traditional range of transitional justice tools and interventions that have evolved, including international tribunals from Nuremburg to the ICC, truth commissions, reparations programs, public memorials, vetting and lustration initiatives, and broader institutional reform. Along the way, we will probe the blind spots, assumptions, and limitations of varying transitional justice mechanisms, together with the transitional justice project in general. Course grades will be determined on the basis of class participation, short reaction papers, a group oral presentation, and a final research paper. Please be advised that this course does not fulfill the law school’s written work requirement

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